


Nothing Left

by BlackenedThorne (BlueThorne)



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, Incest, M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 18:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16938447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueThorne/pseuds/BlackenedThorne
Summary: Vergil dies. Dante follows. A short story in two parts.





	Nothing Left

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually two separate prompt-fills for an ask meme, but I fit them together for the fun of it. Enjoy an AU where Sparda is alive and this is somehow sadder than if he weren't.

The bath water was cold and stained a pale shade of red. I would have preferred a shower if I had to bathe. Less of a reminder that way. Well, not like I could forget regardless.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Dad asked as he fished around to yank the plug free. “You’re looking much better now.”

That must have been a lie. While I continued sitting there, my whole body leaden, Dad grabbed a towel and set to fluffing my hair dry. I couldn’t understand how he could keep going, how he could move or breathe or think or talk. How he could act like there was a point to any of it.

“You must get up, Son,” he said. “I got you some clothes. You’ll feel better in something clean.”

I couldn’t feel much of anything, but I did as he said. Better than having him drag me around again. Once I was dressed, he tried to lead me back to my room, but I staggered as we passed Vergil’s. I knew that if I went inside, it would smell like him. The clothes, the bed, the air - everything would hold the last of what remained of my brother.

Dad’s hand pressed to the side of my face, turning me toward him, away from the darkened room. “Don’t do this to yourself now, Son,” he said. “I’m afraid I won’t get you back if you do.”  

Another day, then. I could try to pick up the pieces today and break myself again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. I couldn’t imagine a world where things stayed fixed, held together with fake smiles and lies.

But Dad was still trying. Despite the raw, empty grief burning in his eyes, he forced a calm smile and pulled me to my old room in the quiet house that had been too big and empty even for all of us together. It was even bigger and emptier now.

Dad sat on the bed at my side. I could feel him searching for something to say, but I knew he didn’t understand. He’d lost his son, sure, but I’d lost my brother, my only brother, and I’d watched him die.

“It’s my fault,” I felt myself say. I didn’t realize I’d had any intent to speak, but the words came regardless.

“It’s not,” Dad sighed. “It’s really not. Nothing about it was your fault.”

“It is. You should be mad at me.” My head dropped into my hands. “Please be mad at me. I can’t deal with this pity, Dad. I need someone to hate me.”

“You already hate yourself enough. I don’t hate you, and I won’t. Your brother would not wish it in any case.”

Of course not. Vergil would have rolled his eyes at me for being such a wreck. He would have told me to quit blubbering and deal with reality. If it had been me who had died, he would have… God, it should have been me.

Dad kissed my temple, and his breath laced through my hair. “I wish I could help,” he said. “I would do anything to fix this, but I can’t. I can’t watch you hurt yourself either, so I’ll stay here with you, my dear. Please forgive yourself.”

No, he didn’t understand. He wasn’t there. He didn’t see the way Vergil’s eyes burned with confusion and pain. He didn’t hear the way Vergil called my name in a soft, desperate voice that played through my head over and over.

Vergil was supposed to be invincible. He shouldn’t have been able to die, my perfect, beautiful brother who faded away in ugly, messy agony.

“But it’s my fault,” I said again. “You don’t understand, Dad. It’s my fault. I was being so careless. And he- He was suffering so much. You don’t understand.”

I just wanted to forget everything, wanted my whole mind to just shut off, but I was drowning in the smell of his blood and the sound of his bones cracking.

Dad pulled me close like I was just some kid with a nightmare. The contact did nothing but make me want to claw at him from deep in some vicious, hateful part of my mind. If he had been there-

“But your brother knew you were there at the end, right?” he said. “He knew you were close. He knew you were safe. That was what mattered to him, you know.”

“He was confused,” I said. “He didn’t know what was happening. He was dying.”

With another sigh, Dad rested his chin to the top of my head. A tremble in his voice gave him away. “I think he knew, my dear. That was why he said what he did.”

He was wrong again, making up lies to try to fix things that were far too broken. Vergil’s last words didn’t make sense. My brother had reached up with the hand that remained, his eyes empty, unseeing. “It’s fine,” he said through a rasp as his fingers brushed my jaw. “You’re alright. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” I’d screamed. “Don’t you dare die!” But there was so little left of him. No one could have survived that.

“I’m fine.” His hand slipped to mine, curling around Rebellion’s hilt alongside it. “I’m fine, Dante. End it, please.”

I don’t know how I did it. I guess I couldn’t deny him one last wish.

I would have done anything for him, so I gave him that too.

It was my fault. All my fault.

I must have held his body for hours, must have sat covered in his blood for hours after that.

But now I was clean. There was nothing left.

Nothing left of him. Nothing left of me.

“Let yourself rest,” Dad said. “At least give yourself that much. I can’t lose you too.”

He already had, but I couldn’t tell him that. I closed my eyes, letting myself lean against him.

His next breath came out as a stuttered sob.

I wished I could remember how to feel enough to cry.

* * *

I had no fool’s notion that my brother was immortal, and despite how he acted, I don’t believe he ever thought that either. I knew he would die, sooner rather than later with how careless he was. He liked to toy with death too much, slipping out of the reach of claws at the last second, letting blades far too close to his throat just to pull a surprise parry.

I knew that he would die, but he was supposed to go out with that stupid grin on his face. I’d always imagined something flashy, a hero’s last stand like in one of those movies he liked so much when we were kids.

His death was nothing of the sort.

As if it mattered, I stopped myself at the edge of the blood coating the ground. It dripped from blades of grass and seeped into the dirt below. The stain was so wide that I was still several paces from the body, what was left of it anyway. Not his body - no part of that gory mess was Dante - but the body, just another one. I’d seen so many. Humans were nothing special when stripped into ribbons of gore, no different from any other animal or demon. I found it hard to say what pieces were from his coat and what were bloodied tears from flesh.

So, no, that was no longer my brother.

But I wished it were.

“This was too early,” I said. “You had more time.”

Across from me, on the other side of the body, he stood blinking as though the moonlight could be so bright. It’s disorienting at first. I could recall that much.

He may not have heard me, distant eyes settling on the mangled corpse. “Fuck, is that me?” he said. “Gross.”

Only Dante could have such a response.

We weren’t twins anymore, it seemed. He had a couple decades on me. Perhaps that was better than I could have hoped for him, always dancing with death, sometimes with me. My brother had survived on luck as much as skill for so long, but one had failed him this time.

“You’re not going back this time,” I called to make sure he understood and to make sure he would see me. His chin jerked up at the sound of my voice. Those shining eyes were a storm of emotions.

“Vergil.” He breathed my name with a note of hope. Before I could begin to explain or even think to greet him, he stepped over his own corpse without care and rushed up to me. His arms caught me before I could step back, crushing me to his chest.

“You’re not supposed to be happy, idiot,” I sighed even as I closed my eyes, feeling him press his face into the crook of my neck. “You’re dead, you know.”

“What, that?” He held me tighter, laughing. “Just a scratch.”

“You’re not that lucky this time, I’m afraid.”

“But you’re here.” His whisper brushed against my skin. “You’re here, Vergil. It’s real this time.”

“This time?” I echoed, but he didn’t answer. He pulled back just enough to rest his hand on my cheek and pressed his forehead to mine. The contentment in his eyes told me more than I would have ever wished to know about our time apart. “I would have rather you lived, Brother,” I said.

He breathed another laugh, the sort that made my chest ache. “That’s strange to hear from you. I wasn’t trying to die or anything if that’s what you’re thinking. But how can I not be happy to see you? Death’s not so bad.” He pressed a kiss to the corner of my lips, forcing a smile to tug at them. His priorities had always been questionable.

“We must be going,” I said.

“Going where? What’s the rush? We’re dead.”

“I knew you were going to be difficult,” I muttered. Always so many questions with him, but he was easy to shut up. Tilting my head, I curled my fingers into the collar of his coat and dragged him into a kiss. He breathed a sigh against my cheek. Even in death, my brother was all fire, so warm and real that he could have been alive.

“Come along,” I murmured against his lips.

He hummed his agreement, eyes lidded with a soft daze of affection.

It had been so long since I could recall what being alive felt like. He brought it back with such ease, my breath, my heart. I’d known he would die, and I hadn’t wished for it to be so soon, yet every part of me burned with the thrill of having him again. Every part of me had longed for the day he breathed his last so he could teach me how to once again.


End file.
